What power of ten does the prefix 'nano' represent?

The prefix 'nano' represents a power of ten equal to -9. This means that when a quantity is expressed in nanometers, for example, it is being represented as one billionth of a meter. The metric system uses various prefixes to signify different powers of ten, and 'nano' is commonly used in fields such as physics and chemistry to describe very small measurements, such as in the case of wavelengths of light or sizes of molecules.

Understanding the metric prefixes is essential for converting between different units and comprehending scales in scientific measurements. For example, 1 nanometer (nm) is equal to 10^-9 meters, which illustrates the small size associated with this unit. This context is also significant in applications such as nanotechnology, where materials are often at the nanoscale.